Saturday, August 18, 2012

ISS: Just Like Home

I'm used to seeing the inside of ISS on the tiny screen, looking cluttered but mostly NASA-sterile, whole lotta white on every surface.* So the full-size Wikipedia image of an astronaut running the ham radio on ISS caught me off-guard. From the fuzzy, well-used hook-and-loop wire/object ties to the lint caught on vent screens, from the bank of very familiar coax switches (we use the same model at work!) at the upper right to the word-processer-printed notes (with illustrations and the occasional exclamation-marked ALL CAPS! word or phrase) taped and clipped to various devices, with due allowance for microgravity, it's extremely close to the kind of environment I work in. ...Other than the hostile vacuum outside and the relative paucity of cabs and buses....

(One other difference: that book visible over his right shoulder appears to be a Russian world atlas, all the better to figure out what part of the world one might be orbiting over.)
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* The Russians, possibly due to greater man-hours in orbit, are better about adding a splash of color, though NASA does try --the restful, salmon-colored paint job inside Unity being an example.

2 comments:

Dave H said...

Those reddish brown splotches on the overhead panel just to the right of the yellow rack on the left look like coffee stains. Yup, just like home.

That black streak on the very edge of the frame above the astronaut's head is a Maglite. How's that for an endorsement? "When the SHTF aboard the ISS, they rely on Maglite and Kenwood!"

Larry said...

Just like home...except for that whole weightless thing...
That might be kinda fun, though.